Wednesday, December 10, 2014
***This Reader Reward is now closed. Congratulations to Shelley, who will be using this awesome tool to restore her double hung windows and expose some shiplap. What a perfect few projects for this tool.***
As many of you may know, I'm a bit of a tool junkie. Whether I'm researching, using, or wishing I had a particular tool, I've become tool obsessed over the last few years.
I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point my Christmas list experienced a metamorphosis of magnificent proportions.
While I once wished and hoped Santa would bring the latest and greatest in GI Joe play sets, the coolest new video game tech gadget (Nintendo power glove), or the Star Wars action figure set I was certain would likely complete my life...
...at some point, roughly coinciding with the purchase of our home, my holiday wish list quickly began looking like the inventory list of a tool store in search of that item that might just let me complete a project.
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Today marks the start of the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend here in Old Town Alexandria. It's my favorite weekend of the year, and is the perfect festive kick off to our holiday season. The town is abuzz, homes are adorned with their holiday finest, and the chill in the air hints of fun, family, and much cheer throughout the month.
Tomorrow we'll be attending the Designer Tour of Homes to see how other residences in town are all decked out for the holidays (and congratulations to our winner of the ticket giveaway!), but first we thought you might like to see our Old Town Home all gussied up for the season.
This year we took a more natural approach to our decor. Not only do I love the look, feel, and smell of fresh greens this time of year, but I'm having surgery early next month that will leave me on crutches for several weeks. So the less we take out of the attic now, means the less Alex has to put away next month when I'm laid up. So outside of our trees and a few cherished holiday items, we kept it pretty simple (and recyclable) this holiday season.
While decorating for the season can be a bit daunting, especially on a timeline, I tried to make it more fun this year by making sure we were well nourished to take on the tree trimming task. A great Christmas playlist, bottle of bubbly, and a cheese and fruit board made the evening a great family event. Too bad we decimated the food and drink before a single ornament went on the tree. Perhaps not my best executed plan.
These too lovable goof balls also kept us entertained while we hung all of our ornaments on the tree. As you can see, Christmas has everyone getting along this time of year.
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***This Reader Reward is no longer accepting entries – See the winner below.***
We're very happy to announce the winner of the complimentary tickets to the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend's annual Holiday Homes Tour. Congratulations to Kristin Frykman, who we hope to see on the tour.
They don't say "it's the most wonderful time of the year" for nothing.
In our home and in Old Town Alexandria in general, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. A nip is in the air, the lights are all hung in the trees along King Street, and the storefronts are all decked out in their holiday finest.
But most of all, the town is all abuzz over the annual Scottish Christmas Walk events this coming weekend. An annual tradition in Old Town for many years, the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend is a series of events organized by the Campagna Center that celebrated Alexandria's Scottish heritage and the Christmas season.
In addition to the annual parade...
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Monday, November 24, 2014
We left off in our tale of bathtub salvage with a cleaned up and freshly painted cast iron behemoth in the basement, just waiting for the big moving day.
Wendy had contacted the movers and scheduled a date for a group of pros to help us accomplish this lofty goal of lifting the tub from its basement resting place to its rightful position in our master bathroom.
This may go without saying, but we were both completely stressed out about this looming event. So much so that we'd both been dreaming about and dreading the day this tub was to move from the basement and into the bathroom for a decade. With each passing year the idea grew more imposing and the thought that it might never even happen crept into our minds. The whole concept was so overhyped that Wendy even declared that the thought of being in the house during the move would be too much for her to bear, and she would need to be away when it all happened lest she might lose her mind. Yes, she'd officially proclaimed she'd likely lose it if she were to witness to this monumental occasion. Her loss, my gain?
As the more easy going half of our harebrained duo, I understood the level of torture she would be under and opted to offer myself as the emotional sacrificial lamb that would oversee the endeavor.
On the day of the deed the guys from My Truck Buddy were scheduled to arrive at 11:30, and I had a complete disaster of a basement to deal with. We told them we'd clean stuff up and clear a path to make is "easy" to get the tub out of the basement. But I have to say, I think "easy" is all relative when you're dealing with 350 pounds of iron.
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